Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt Kumpf & Wiesbaden

"Phototyped in Frankfort"

Frankfurt/Main was the home of a number of postcard printers/publishers back then. Familiar to ppc collectors are probably Bluemlein, Rosenblatt, the two Frey businesses, Metz, Berke, Kornsand & Co., Boch & Kirsch and others. These were big in chromo/lithography and especially Autochrome cards.
When it comes to companies specialised in collotype process for ppc‘s, also combined collotype/lithography, the list of known sources is much shorter. C.F. Fay was an early company, Stern & Loeb another, Bluemlein & Co. used collotype for a shorter period, too. But in first place it was Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt (Kumpf & Wiesbaden) and likely the later Sueddeutsche Lichtdruckanstalt Heinrich Kumpf. The illustrated "Phototyped in Frankfort" imprint (often inside stamp box) is found on a number of British views for instance.

Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt Wiesbaden & Co.

This was another early German (collotype) postcard printing company, the history closely connected with the rise and fall of picture postcard craze. Although their name is not often mentioned in old printing trade literature I have at hand.
The company was set up on 5 June 1889. Klimsch 1895 edition lists a Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt Wiesbaden & Co. run by Albert Wiesbaden and found at Thiergarten 23. Specialised in collotype printing, photolithography and halftone (block) etching.

Business partners come and go

On 1 March 1897 the photographer Heinrich Kumpf joined the company which read now Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt Kumpf & Wiesbaden. Albert Wiesbaden the sole managing director.
An article in a local newspaper from September 1898 mentions that the company had enlarged their production capacities considerably to handle bigger customer orders, not only from Germany but also other countries. Big format collotype presses were installed putting the company in the position to print up to 50,000 cards per day and about 15 million cards per year. Of which about 3 million cards are shipped to customers from Holland, England, Switzerland, Brazil, Australia etc.

Heinrich Kumpf left the partnership on 13 February 1903 again and opened an own printing/photography business under the name Sueddeutsche Lichtdruckanstalt Heinr. Kumpf in Frankfurt/M., Mainzerlandstr. 150, on 1 April 1903. The Albert Wiesbaden company name of was changed to Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt Wiesbaden & Co. again. New business partner with equal rights became Mrs. Marie Berger (née Wagner), wife of the painter Lukas Berger.

All comes to an end

But the good times were over, now low prices and severe competiton among ppc printers were common. Late 1905 the Wiesbaden & Co. company was taken over by Alfred Kayser, soon joined by business partner S. Goldschmidt. By 1907 they worked with 3 collotype and 2 litho presses, some other production machinery and employed 25-30 workers. The company appears to have folded silently some time in 1910-11.

Sueddeutsche Lichtdruckanstalt Heinrich Kumpf was also specialised in postcards but soon added art prints after own reproduction patent to production line. Heinrich Kumpf died in a car accident on 7 April 1909. Business continued by a Aloys Kumpf BUT there appears to had been a second Kumpf business, a GmbH „formerly H. Kumpf„ around at same time. The first company declared insolvency soon and so did the GmbH in early December 1910, too. Due to a conflict between business partners it reads, although claiming being financially sound.

Identification of Wiesbaden & Co, Kumpf & Wiesbaden as well as later Sueddeutsche Lichtdruckanstalt Heinr. Kumpf postcards a difficult matter due to changing layouts/qualities/no particular logo, unless name (Frankfurter Lichtdruckanstalt: without "& Co." or owner/partner names mentioned) was imprinted.

See next page for more company information and a selection of cards.

Note: A longer article on several postcard printers from Frankfurt/Main was published in TPA issue 32.